Dudley Labour Group – Where Next?

Dear local Labour Party members and supporters,

Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for the support given to our candidates over recent weeks and months, and especially on polling day. We would not have been able to get 14 of our candidates elected without your help. As you may know, in 3 of the wards, Belle Vale, Wollaston and Gornal, we missed holding the seat by only 17, 3 and 27 votes respectively. Whilst we remain the largest party in Dudley having won 14 of the 24 seats on offer at this election, Dudley runs the real risk of having a UKIP/Tory alliance.

We would now normally be taking time to reflect and maybe have a few weeks away from campaigning, but as I am sure all our members will be aware, on 23 June we have what will be the most important polling day for a generation. It also gives us the opportunity to again kick-start our local organising and raise our visibility within our communities.

Whatever the outcome, the EU referendum will have implications for the nation for many years to come. I know many of you will have reservations about continuing our membership of the European Union, however, despite all the talk about how much the EU costs us, the benefits cannot be underestimated. Here in Dudley we can see physical proof in the form of the Glass Museum and the artwork on many of our traffic islands. But we also need to remember that many of the hard-fought working time directives and human rights laws have only come about due to our EU membership. We know that under a Tory government these are always at risk, and without the backup of the EU we could see many of these laws scrapped. Also, many of the animal welfare laws and targets on climate change have come through our EU membership.

I would like to ask if you are able to help us get Labour’s message out to local voters. We have our own separate Labour campaign – ‘Labour IN for Britain’. Over the next 41 days the party will be supplying us with leaflets and other resources to help get the message out in Dudley. We will be holding the first of a series of borough-wide campaign days tomorrow, Saturday 14 May, starting at 10.30am. We will be meeting at the Brockmore & Pensnett Community Centre.

We will be running further sessions: Saturday 21 May in Stourbridge, Saturday 28 May in Halesowen and Saturday 4 June in Dudley North, with a final all-out session on Saturday 11 June in Coseley East.

Please look out for further details.

As always, it’s only by working together as a team that we can be successful.